Andrew Wronski Weighs in on New Administration's Potential Impact on Manufacturing Sector
Foley & Lardner LLP partner Andrew Wronski is featured for his insights on the incoming presidential administration’s impact upon the manufacturing sector in the Milwaukee Business Journal article, “Tariff-ied of the Future?“
“People in the manufacturing space are optimistic about the benefits of energy policy, they’re optimistic about a deregulatory agenda — particularly on the environmental side, but probably also on the employee-employer relations side,” commented Wronski, who is chair of Foley’s national manufacturing sector and managing partner of the firm’s Milwaukee office. “Those things can have very significant benefits. The headwind there is the tariff issue and how those balance out.”
Wronski said questions about how President-elect Trump’s tariffs will be implemented remain top of mind for the industry, noting that while threatening tariffs can be useful in trade negotiations, “it would be a mistake to assume that he’s just blowing smoke here.”
He highlighted that tariffs could indeed result in a resurgence of American manufacturing down the line. “You can certainly see a scenario in which supply chains start to reorient within the United States,” Wronski explained. “The only way to tariff-proof yourself is to source within the U.S. — or Mexico and Canada, depending on the tariff environment.”
Touching on major infrastructure projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, Wronski said that concerns of the new administration overturning the law in its entirety is unlikely, though direct action could be taken on disbursing or releasing certain funding.
“It would take a fair amount of political capital to undo something as big as the infrastructure act,” Wronski added. “It wouldn’t seem to me like the best use of political capital going forward.”
(Subscription required)